Posts Tagged ‘Sony Pictures’

The FBI has connected North Korea to the Sony Pictures cyberattack, a federal law enforcement source told Fox News Wednesday, hours after the company announced it had scrapped the Dec. 25 release of “The Interview” after a number of major movie chains said they would not show the film.

The administration reportedly will call out North Korea on its role on Thursday.

However, the source also told Fox the hacking attack did not necessarily come from inside the borders of North Korea.

Until Wednesday, the Obama administration had been saying it was not immediately clear who might have been responsible for the computer break-in. North Korea has publicly denied it was involved.

In canceling he Christmas day release, Sony released a statement saying, “In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film The Interview, we have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release. We respect and understand our partners’ decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety of employees and theater-goers.”

Sony has recently been the target of one of the most important hacks in history, at least considering the amount of data that was stolen in the heist. And now, of course, that data is all slowly being published online. The hackers who hit Sony have already leaked a list of unreleased Sony movies, making them available for download, and several other data dumps containing personal details for Sony employees and various celebrities, email exchanges between top Sony execs, and even plans for the future.

FROM EARLIER: Sony hackers may have stolen the newest James Bond script

In addition to scripts for some upcoming projects, including the upcoming James Bond movie, hackers have also found more details about 2016 and 2017 movies, with Business Insider listing some of them, as found in the leaked inbox of Sony Pictures cochair Amy Pascal.

The company plans several interesting titles for the following years, including Uncharted, Ghostbusters, Angry Birds — the full list follows below, as listed by the publication:

The finale to the long-running Harry Potter series opened with a flourish, setting a new domestic-opening weekend record and taking in nearly half a billion dollars world-wide.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2,” from Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. Pictures, earned an estimated $168.6 million at 4,375 North American locations, beating the $158.4 million earned in 2008 by “The Dark Knight,” which opened at 4,366 locations.

The eighth Potter film is on track to become the highest-grossing adaptation in the franchise, which has grossed $6.3 billion dollars world-wide since the first film, “Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone,” opened 10 years ago.

Based on the second half of the seventh and final novel in J.K. Rowling’s best-selling “Harry Potter” series, “Deathly Hallows 2” earned $43.5 million from midnight screenings in 3,800 locations early Friday morning. It ended the day with a record-breaking $92.1 million, surpassing the previous single-day record of $72.7 million earned by “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” in 2009.

The high gross of “Deathly Hallows 2,” which features a final showdown between the titular boy-wizard and his mortal enemy, Lord Voldemort, was aided by 3-D ticket sales, which made up 43% of the box office market share. The latest film is the only “Potter” title to be released in 3-D, though its predecessor “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” was originally slated to be released in 3-D, but was ultimately distributed as a 2-D film.

Overseas, the film earned $307 million from over 20,000 screens in 59 countries, bringing its world-wide cumulative gross to over $475 million, Warner Bros. estimated.

In an interview Sunday Dan Fellman, Warner Bros.’s president of domestic distribution, called the end of the franchise “bittersweet.”

More than just a film series, the “Harry Potter” brand has spawned nearly $20 billion in retail sales for Warner and its partners and given the studio $1 billion in profits, making it one of the most valuable film franchises in modern Hollywood.

The biggest domestic debut prior to “The Dark Knight,” also a Warner Bros. release, was “Spider-Man 3,” from Sony Corp.’s Sony Pictures, which earned $151.1 million its first weekend in 2007.